


A Helping Hand

by Haberdasher



Series: Twitch Plays Pokemon [17]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Twitch Plays Pokemon (Let's Play)
Genre: Gen, Twitch Plays Black 2, Twitch Plays Blaze Black 2, Twitch Plays Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 08:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2844416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bianca meets Cly as the girl, the new host of the voices, begins her journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Helping Hand

Professor Juniper hung up the phone and sighed as she turned to Bianca, who was giving treats to a Snivy running loose in the lab. “Hey, Bianca, I have a favor to ask of you.”

"Sure! What is it, Junie?"

Juniper bit her lip. She’d told that girl a thousand times that she didn’t like nicknames, but Bianca never listened. By now, she’d just resigned herself to having lost that battle. “An old friend just called. She thinks her daughter, Cly, was taken over by the voices. You need to go to Aspertia City and give her a Pokemon and a Pokedex.”

"The voices?" Her voice was low and serious. "You don’t think-"

"You need to go check it out. If it’s true- and I’m guessing you of all people would be able to tell…" Bianca’s mind filled with images of her childhood friend running in circles, tripping over ledges, flying headfirst into trees. Yes, she knew the signs all too well. "You need to help her."

"And if it’s a false alarm again?"

"Just do what you did for that boy earlier. Give her a Pokemon, get out of her hair, no harm done."

"…I’ll go." Bianca grabbed a Poke Ball from the shelf with her swiftest flyer and gave the professor a terse nod.

"Remember, you’re looking for a girl named Cly! And for once in your life, don’t be late!"

"Whatever you say, Junie!"

Professor Juniper shook her head and sighed the moment her assistant had closed the door behind her.

Bianca was lost in thought looking out at the sights of Aspertia City- it was a gorgeous town, and one day she would have to visit for longer, maybe use a few of her vacation days just to relax- when a ruckus from behind startled her. She looked over to see a girl stumbling over steps, then bumping into the railings, gripping them tightly as she pushed into them again and again. Images of her past, of a boy she knew so well having the same difficulties with even the most basic movements, filled her head. There was no mistaking it; this girl was the real deal.

Though Bianca had turned to face her immediately, it took the girl a while to move close enough that the two could talk face-to-face. “…hi.”

"Hey there! It’s so pretty here, don’t you agree?" No response. That wasn’t much of a surprise.

"My name is Bianca. I’m an assistant of Professor Juniper. Do you know a person named Cly?"

The girl gave a weak smile and nodded, the first change in expression Bianca had seen her make, no matter how many times her legs had rammed into the cold metal railings.

"Wait, you’re Cly! You’re… exactly like what I heard. Nice to meet you." Bianca extended her hand, but Cly just stared at it rather than reciprocating the gesture.

"I have a request for you. Will you help us complete the Pokedex?"

This nod was slower, smaller, and the smile vanished from her lips.

"Thank you. It’ll be fun, I promise." Bianca rustled around in her bag, pulling out all sorts of papers and gadgets and Poke Balls before finally retrieving the Pokedex and the smaller bag she’d hidden inside. "In here is the Pokemon that will be your starter."

As the girl’s shaking hands opened up the bag, Bianca realized that Juniper had given her the same three Pokemon that she, Cheren, and Jimmy had chosen. She wasn’t quite sure whether that was a coincidence.

The girl reached for the Poke Ball on the right twice, but picked up the one in the middle. Tepig. She wanted the Tepig, just like Jimmy… but Bianca knew all too well what had become of that choice the last time around…

"You want Tepig? Are you sure?"

Cly nodded… and immediately burst out crying.

"It’s okay, it’s okay!" The words probably wouldn’t help, she knew, but Bianca had never been good at comforting her friends when things got rough. "You and Tepig will be a great match, okay?" Bianca reached out, and Cly grabbed her hand as she stood up, still sniffling. "Don’t worry. Now, do you want to nickname your new Pokemon?"

"…n-no." The words were barely audible, mumbled under her breath, but Bianca could just barely make them out.

"No nickname, gotcha, that’s fine too." Jimmy hadn’t given his Tepig a nickname either- not an official one, at any rate. But the voices had called the Pokemon  _Bacon_ \- a breakfast food, fuel to be consumed as quickly as possible, not a living thing with feelings that deserved respect. Were the voices still focused on bringing about the death of the first Pokemon their host would ever use? She had no way of knowing, but the very idea of history repeating itself in that way brought chills to her spine.

"Here’s your Pokedex, too." Cly pocketed it without breaking eye contact with Bianca. "You can use it when you… visit all of Unova and… catch a lot of Pokemon…" And go weeks without rest, and lose the Pokemon you see as your dearest friends… She couldn’t keep going, couldn’t keep up the cheerful act she’d worked so hard to perfect, not anymore.

Luckily, the girl didn’t seem to notice, as she encouraged a boy about her age- one who, Bianca was glad to note, seemed to have no trouble bouncing up the stone steps or walking over to make small talk with her- to come up and join them. The boy was grinning at Cly every step of the way; they were clearly friends, good friends, like she and Jimmy had been back then. And then it was only right for her to give him a Pokemon, too, and let them battle, have her very first battle be against a trusted friend rather than a stranger. At least this Cly girl would have somebody to look out for as she traveled, one familiar face to greet her as the rest of her life was irreversibly changed.

It took Bianca a while to look up and realize that the battle was over. Cly had won, despite the voices being far from master strategists, but her Tepig was clearly in pain from its battle wounds. Then Juniper’s words rang in her mind.  _Help her_. Not just start off the girl’s journey, but make sure it starts off right, as much as she could.

"Let’s go to the Pokemon Center and heal your Pokemon, alright?"

The journey to the Pokemon Center was short and uneventful, with Cly only tripping once or twice along the way. Bianca walked in front of the girl, looking over her shoulder every once in a while to make sure that she was still there, that she hadn’t gone off to wander in circles or run into the wild grass. But they made it to the nurse’s station with very little trouble. It was almost as if… they  _wanted_ her in the Pokemon Center…

As Cly handed over her Tepig to be healed, Bianca’s eyes glossed over, and the face she saw before her was no longer that of this new girl but Jimmy’s, Jimmy healing his Pokemon time and again, Jimmy buying and throwing away heaps of items, Jimmy losing so much to…

"I’ll… I’ll explain the PC to you." Bianca’s throat clenched up as all Jimmy’s horror stories came to mind, but she had promised a tour of the Pokemon Center, and like it or not, the PC was part of that.

Cly dragged her feet as they walked over to the computer station, her sneakers squeaking against the tile, her eyes wide and shining.

"Now, anybody can use this PC, including you, alright? And you use it to deposit Pokemon, and to withdraw them, too."

"A-and…" Her voice was wavering and her eyes glistening all the more brightly.

"No. Don’t you start with that." Her voice was sharper than she intended, and her heart panged as the girl flinched.

Bianca quieted and forced a smile onto her face. “If you use this, just withdraw and deposit things, okay? It can be useful, just be careful. That’s all. The next thing is over here. You’ll like it better, I promise.”

Bianca started walking towards the Poke Mart, but stopped and turned around when she noticed a distinct lack of squeaking footsteps behind her. The girl hadn’t moved, but her face had turned deathly pale, and she was shaking all over as she stared resolutely at the PC, mumbled words escaping from her clenched teeth.

"C’mere, Cly. The Poke Mart’s nice, okay? You buy Poke Balls here, and Potions, and mail, and…" The girl still wasn’t moving, so Bianca walked back towards her. As she approached, she saw that the girl was flat-out bawling, the stream of tears that now covered her face generated amidst her eerie silence.

"It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay…" The girl looked right at her, and Bianca saw for the first time how much anguish was packed into those dark eyes. But what could she say that would help Cly at the start of this terrible journey? How could she promise that it would all be okay when Jimmy had told her so much about what could go wrong?

Bianca acted on impulse, doing the only thing that struck her as appropriate given the circumstances: she gave Cly a hug. And as the two remained locked in a tight embrace, the younger girl’s shaking slowly lessened, and her tears stopped flowing, and, after a few long and awkward minutes, Cly returned Bianca’s embrace.

Bianca was the one who eventually pulled away, though the two still stood close together. “Let’s go check out the Poke Mart, okay? Hey, I’ll even buy some Poke Balls for you if you want. Does that sound good?”

Cly sniffled and nodded, grabbing Bianca’s hand. As they walked towards the Poke Mart, step by uneasy step, they took turns squeezing each other’s hand, and as the girl started giving Bianca a small smile, Bianca found that she too was smiling.

It’s true, there wasn’t too much she could do to help. Doubtlessly this girl would suffer just like Jimmy had, and there was no way she could prevent that. But, Bianca fervently hoped, perhaps their brief connection would bring some small modicum of joy to Cly during her darkest moments. Maybe some faint memory of their tight hug would quiet her tears at a later date. And that was all she could wish for.


End file.
